I don't think MLs are 'overpowered', I think the opposite is true, it's that ACs are overweight

Yes.

yes, but you do, unless your using a tank with an ICE engine (and then you have more problems than HS) and can use the AC-20 with 0 heat.

The point was that the weapons appear to have been balanced based on the absence of internal engine heatsinks.

I was in an interesting game (before that rule) where we could fit out our Omnis how we wanted. I had a 90tn (GM created) mech with 4LPLs TC and 21DHS. on one particular turn, I declared no movement. A light mech jumped behind me. I was nice and pointed out the fact, that I had not moved, to the player. He insisted on not taking the move back. So... I flip-armed and aimed all 4 at his right leg! Next turn, 40pt CT auto-hits

Tenshinai wrote:The point was that the weapons appear to have been balanced based on the absence of internal engine heatsinks.

Hmmm, possibly ... well the -- -- at FASA did a lot of things ... . I am currently trying to produce PDFs for all the RL units and there is hardly any of the 'book' units that conform to the design rules. Not one of the Leviathans that I've checked have Mass or Cost that are anywhere near what they listed them as - I'm going to leave out those stats as 'irrelevant' since they don't conform to their own math - that they made up! (no wonder they went under ) So, this wouldn't surprise me.

MAD-4A wrote:Hmmm, possibly ... well the -- -- at FASA did a lot of things ... . I am currently trying to produce PDFs for all the RL units and there is hardly any of the 'book' units that conform to the design rules. Not one of the Leviathans that I've checked have Mass or Cost that are anywhere near what they listed them as - I'm going to leave out those stats as 'irrelevant' since they don't conform to their own math - that they made up! (no wonder they went under ) So, this wouldn't surprise me.

Essentially, they made a game, then they realised that making the background have SOME kind of realism would be a good idea.

By that time, it was already impossible.

I recall one of the posters on the BT forum using a signature about the composition of warship armour, how they were layers of spiderweb and air, based on size and tonnages stated.

Also, about unit structure, one of the primary themes in BT has always been, shit happened, NOTHING is standard or according to the book.

They allow for varying unit sizes. like a unit commanders going to say "The enemys attacking, but you only have 3 mechs in your lance so you can't fight, you don't have 4" or 5 mechs are left from 2 Lances and the commander says "well these 4 are going to form a lance, and that one will just stand down because we don't have 3 more to put with it." no he's going to say "You 4 form up on him!"

They also provide flexibility in Merc unit organization. lets say you command a Merc unit with 18 mechs...:So what are you? you have more than 12 so your not a Company, but you don't have 36 so your not a Battalion.Well which do you want to be? Battalions garner more pay and you can give yourself a field promotion to Major but you also need to pay more officers. A Company gets less pay but needs less officers, and is given less hectic assignments. so:You could form your mechs into 2x4-mech Lances and 2x5-mech 'Reinforced' Lances that's 4 Lances, take the field rank of Capitan and you're a 'Reinforced Company'. You need 3 Lieutenants (Lance commanders) and the rest are MW or NCOs. good for a low paying garrison assignment. Its also good for receiving less dangerous assignments when in combat (your just a 'company').Or: you could form your 18 mechs into 6 'Short Lances' of 3 mechs each. form 3 of those into 1st Company and 2 into 2nd (Short) Company. That leaves 1 (Short) Lance as your command unit. for this you are a Major, you need 2 Captains (Company commanders) and 3 Lieutenants (Lance commanders). you're now technically a 'Short' Battalion and can garner Battalion pay, but with the added expense of 2 Capitan's, you also have to worry in combat that some General may throw you in against an enemy Battalion (with 2-3 times your numbers) because your a 'Battalion' right! on the plus side you can cover more area with more maneuver units, great for a recon unit.

So you assign units as you see fit, within the guidelines.

This can be great for game purposes too as it gives GMs more flexibility...6 Heavy/Assaults form 2 Short Lances for a Short Company, while 15 Light/Medium mechs form 3-4 lances (Short-Reinforced) for a Company or Reinforced Company and you can form a 'balanced' Company-on-Company game without both sides needing exactly "12" mechs.

I never really did many custom mechs though almost all the ones I did make were pure energy boats. I spent more time with the Aerotech rules making custom warships. (A lot of my groups Battletech related activities took place in an alternate timeline where the early Sucession War leaders weren't stupid enough to blow the warship and jumpship industries to hell so Warships were fairly common in the 3025 era and even most pirate bands, merc units or rebel movements had them provided by sympathetic Great Houses under the table usually in the case of the latter and sometimes for the pirates as well)